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Dateline Patna
MOSQUE CAPTURED BY YADAVAS
By Syed Mohammad Iqbal
Bihar, where the ruling Rashtriya Janta
Dal (RJD) leaders swear by their concern for the cause of minorities,
increasing cases of encroachment upon their religious places have caused
resentment among a good number of Muslims in and around the state capital.
The latest update has come from the Danapur subdivision, where the chief
minister Rabri Devi's caste men Yadavas have forcibly turned a mosque at
Maner some 25 km from capital Patna into a cowshed after driving away the
mosque's caretaker .
The mosque, one of the oldest in Maner is being used by Yadvas as a
cowshed, making it difficult for the Muslims to offer prayers there. When
the caretaker of the mosque protested the nefarious move, he was
threatened with riots, says an aggrieved Muslim of Maner. It is also
alleged that the place is also being used for gambling and prostitution.
The graveyard at Maner also seems to be in the process of being encroached
upon.
A statue of late Congress MP Ramnagina Singh, has been installed on the
graveyard land, which has aroused Muslim suspicions about the motive of
late Singh's followers. Yet another plot of graveyard land, situated on
the outskirts of Maner has also been encroached, with a cinema hall having
come up on the land nearby, to the anguish of Muslims.Though the matter is
now in the court, the state government's silence from the very beginning
has disheartened liberal circles and the minorities of the Yadav-dominated
Danapur subdivision.
Incidentally, a similar case of encroachment upon Qabristan land was
reported from Fatuha, 30 km east of Patna a few years ago. Several
missives were sent to the district administration seeking its intervention
to free the graveyard but to no avail. Here it may be recalled that the
RJD supremo Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, now Union Railway
Minister, had together sat on dharna at Fatuha demanding immediate removal
of encroachments from the graveyard. However, the same Mr Yadav maintained
stoic silence on the issue when he had become the chief minister of the
state later.
Mr Irshad Ahmad, general secretary of the Bihar Pradesh Muslim Conference
at that time held the state government in general and Laloo Prasad Yadav
in particular responsible for the wanton acts of yadavas during the last
few years. He regretted that despite complaints lodged with the police
station concerned, no step was taken to free the religious shrines. Mr
Ahmad disclosed that the Bihar Pradesh Muslim Conference had drawn the
attention of Mr Yadav during Iftar party in 1996 towards the forcible
occupation of mosques, particularly in Maner, Fatuha and Patna city areas
of the district.
However, he kept mum on the issue. Interestingly
Mr Ahmad alleged that Muslim ministers of RJD
government too preferred to remain silent. Another Muslim leader, who did
not wish to be quoted, rued that while the RJD government talks about
Muslim welfare and their leaders love to shout the slogan of M-Y
combination, the Yadavas had launched a campaign of sorts to defile the
holy places of Muslims. Many of the 40 mosques in the urban and semi-urban
areas of the district are silent witnesses to encroachments by Yadavas and
were being used as cowsheds.
Muslim leaders threatened to hold public shows throughout the state of
video films on the mosques if the RJD government continues to ignore their
religious feelings. Senior Janta Dal leader and former minister of state
for finance, Faiyaz Bhagalpuri, meanwhile, has threatened to launch an
agitation if the encroachments were not removed from the Muslims holy
places soon. Mr Jawed a dynamic worker of RJD said that even for Mukhia
election which was held recently only Muslims cast their votes to Yadavas
but Yadavas never cast their votes to any Muslim candidate. They openly
used to say that we never cast our vote to any community.
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